PH OTOS BY MARTY DAVIS
Katherine Tennyson says she never has
had a negative professional experience
related to her sexual orientation
bout the time this issue of Just Out hits newsstands,
Multnomah County residents also will receive a bal
lot in the mail for the circuit court judicial election.
We have family running for one position— and
family is what Katherine Tennyson is all about.
Since beginning her own business in 1987 with Kristen Wine-
miller, she has devoted her practice to the health and well-being
of Oregon families, especially those with troubled youth.
Tennyson, a 1984 graduate of Lewis & Clark College, is run
ning against A1 Bannon for Position 1 in District 4. Voters nor
mally do not get a chance to select a judge, and she hopes they
will seize the opportunity while they can.
“What is unique right now in this judicial election is that usu
ally there is a list of incumbents and they are running unopposed.
and neglected children, and she received more
and more cases. “One of the things they say
when you start your own firm is you
become an expert in an area where you
have more than two cases,” she says with
a smile.
Multnomah County is progressive
to have the Family Law Panel with its
“one judge, one family” integrated
model. A family often has more than
one issue: Divorce, child custody, juve
nile delinquency and substance abuse
issues all might be going on at once.
Rather than have a different judge
or hearing for every separate issue,
mm
the panel assigns one judge who
sees and hears the family
through the entire process of
resolution.
“I think a judge sits in a
unique position to hopefully
see the global problem and
try to come up with the
most common-sense legal
solution...especially in a
family law case,” Ten
nyson says. “A judge is
really going to be the
most
dispassionate
person in the room.
As a lawyer, as an
advocate, you can
get caught up in
your client’s own story, and the next thing you know, you have
lost perspective. The job of the judge is to figure out what every
body’s side is, understand what the law is and then make it work.”
And Tennyson knows how to make it work: Get everyone to
come together. She has been practicing how to do that since the
second grade, when she joined the Girl Scouts.
“I am a lifetime, card-carrying member,” she says. “I don’t
think there is anything about me that 1 can’t point to my experi
ence of being a Girl Scout and say, ‘That was incredibly instru
mental.’ I always think, ‘OK, how can I get everybody to work
together?’ It gets ingrained in you— how to approach a problem
and how to get everyone on board to solve the problem.”
Tennyson’s partner of nearly six years is a Portland high school
teacher. They like to garden, cook and travel together.
T he F amily J udge
Lesbian wants to serve
on Multnomah County Circuit Court bench
Queer voters should keep an eye
on several contests this month
by Jim Radosta
gay man, Karl Rohde (right), is running
for state senator of District 19. The
Republican has served on the Lake Oswego
City Council since 1996 and owns a small
business, Precision Events.
According to the Gay &. Lesbian Victory
Fund— a national organization that helps
elect openly gay candidates to public
office— Rohde has his work cut out for him.
His opponents in the three-way primary are former state Reps.
Bob Tieman and Ron Adams.
A
he Good Government Initiative shifts responsibility of Portland
city departments to experienced managers hired by the mayor.
Chief petitioner Robert Ball, a gay businessman and reserve police
officer, says it will bring diversity to the council because it allows peo
ple to run for office by district, making campaigns more affordable.
A City Club of Portland study committee recommended
April 26 that its members support Measure 26-30. The group will
take a vote during its next meeting May 3.
“A ‘yes’ vote to change Portland’s form of government will
remove the structural barriers that increase costs of government and
leave citizens disenfranchised,” said the executive summary of the
report. “If adopted, this measure will unify executive responsibility
under the mayor, resulting in better value for our tax dollars, [and]
change the role of the council members to full-time legislators, which
will improve citizen representation and legislative effectiveness.”
T
etro Councilor David Bragdon (right)
is running for president of the regional
government agency. One of his opponents,
Kate Schiele, works with Oregonians in
Action, a conservative property-rights group.
The other candidate in the race is Rod
Monroe, who has told the Oregon Family
Council he opposes gay marriage and gay
rights legislation. As a state legislator he cast
a vote in 1983 to help kill Senate Bill 319, which would have pro
hibited discrimination based on sexual orientation.
M
avid Schuman is running for Oregon Court of Appeals judge
Position 1. His opponent, David J. Hunnicutt, serves as cor
porate counsel for Oregonians in Action.
D
arc Abrams (left) is running against Mar
ilyn Litzenberger for Multnomah Coun
ty Circuit Court judge Position 38 in District 4-
The Portland Public Schools board mem
ber was an outspoken advocate for the district’s
ban on military recruiters because of “don’t ask,
don’t tell.” The 7-year-old policy was pulled
last month after federal funding was jeopar
dized by an education bill President Bush signed in January.
M
by Kim Stephenson
Voters usually just have one box to check,” Tennyson says. “In
this election cycle, we have three contested circuit court races. I
can’t remember a time when there has been three contested seats
like this.”
The term for a circuit judge is six years. The governor com
monly assigns people to the seats because the predecessors often
retire before their term is up, and the
election cycle is missed.
“It is likely I would be assigned to
the Family Law Panel if I was elected
because that is my background,” Ten
nyson says. “T hat runs the gamut of
abuse and neglect, child custody,
divorce and delinquency and juvenile
court-type cases. The Family Law
Panel does mental health commit
ments, probate, second legal parent
adoptions, domestic partnership disso
lutions— anything that has to do with
the family."
When Tennyson launched her practice, she was looking for
work anywhere and signed up on the juvenile court-appointed
lawyer list. She always had been interested in the field of abused
O ther R aces
to W atch
Tennyson never has hidden her sexual orientation, nor has
she boasted it. She always has used the appropriate pronoun and
says almost all of her colleagues are aware she is a lesbian.
Although she never has had a negative professional experience
related to her sexual orientation, fear of some kind of hurtful dis
crimination played in her mental background.
“I made my world so I wouldn’t
have to deal with discrimination," she
says. “I don’t think I realized I really
worried about it until the first day of our
business, and I thought, ‘Hey, I don’t
have to worry about this anymore.’ ”
Tennyson says that she has heard
prejudiced and derogatory remarks
toward sexual minorities come from
the mouths of her clients and that she
is speaking up more than she used to.
“Ever since 1 saw Maya Angelou
interviewed by Oprah Winfrey, and she
said in her house people don’t get to say things that are hurtful to
other people, I have gotten a lot better at calling people out on
things that are hurtful,” she says. "When I am a judge, that will
certainly be the rule in my courtroom.” JP1
regon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury— who will challenge
incumbent U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., this fall—
spoke April 27 at the National Stonewall Democrats convention
in Cleveland. The organization, which works to educate the sex
ual minorities community about political issues of importance,
also announced its endorsement of his candidacy.
Bradbury recently got the thumbs-up from Basic Rights Ore
gon, which normally does not take sides on national races. The
Human Rights Campaign has endorsed Smith for his leadership
in support of federal hate crimes legislation.
(Although the two groups disagree about who to support, at
least they have a common enemy in Lon Mahon: In correspon
dence dated April 18, H RC sent BRO a check for $10,000 to
fight the Student Protection Act II, which might appear on the
fall ballot. It also announced a $5,000 Equality Fund grant to be
used for educational purposes.) JT1
O